1. Technical Field
The present application relates generally to data processing system communications. More specifically, the present application is directed to data processing system communications using a fault tolerant closed system control.
2. Description of Related Art
Large scale rack mounted data processing systems, such as enterprise class data processing systems, require numerous cables to interconnect the various elements of the system together. For instance, a relatively small system may contain over a hundred cables while higher-end systems may contain thousands of cables. Not only is the routing of cables difficult, it is also very expensive, provides many failures points, and requires stocking of numerous field replaceable units. As systems grow so does the cabling, especially in redundant systems where there is often a need for two cables for each of power and communications per element to handle the high failure rates inherent to a mechanical design.
An example of the complexity in interconnecting a data processing system may be a system of eight elements that requires both primary and redundant communications and power cabling. For each element, there is a primary power cable, a redundant power cable, a primary communication cable, and a redundant communication cable. Thus, the system of eight elements requires 32 cables. Additionally, using primary and redundant communications requires a separate Ethernet switch for the primary communication system and the redundant communication system. As stated previously, such cabling increases cost, causes housings to be larger to accommodate extra cabling, provides failure points in the system, etc. These problems are increased with larger systems requiring even more cabling. Therefore, a need exists to reduce the cumbersome interconnection of data processing systems.